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On Yet Again, The Onion Makes a Joke, and Humorless Idiots Complain
The first tweet was: “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building.” The 11 minutes late this tweet showed up: “BREAKING: Capitol building being evacuated. 12 children held hostage by group of armed congressmen.” So basically anyone dumb enough to not realize the newspaper is a satirical publication was dumb enough not to wait for other tweets. Fairly astonishing. Because this has got to be the 100% fastest time something The Onion wrote went from published to misunderstanding to ninny-party ever! New milestone!
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On Let's Talk About the Whitney Pilot, Shall We?
@Ron Shapiro@facebook It’s not a laugh track. It’s a live studio audience. But am I like the only person who has actually been to a taping of a show that is taped in front of a “live studio audience?” Folks, the audience is coached on when to laugh and when to shut up. It’s not impulsive laughter. The fact anyone has to explain this in the case of a show like “Whitney” is beyond belief. Here’s the review: The show is a turd. End of review.
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On The Onion Could Make The Move To Chicago
@Swedish Detective “It’s a shame that people think they can't do comedy outside of New York or L.A.” Indeed! It’s not like they moved from the midwest—Madison, WI & Chicago, IL—to New York City 10 years ago? Oh, wait…
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On The Road Less Travelled: Eight Comedy Stars Who Took Different Paths to the Top
@petejayhawk Exactly! Seeing Chris Elliot on this list and the complete non-mention of Bob Elliot (aka: “Bob” of “Bob & Ray”) is stupefying. It’s akin to ignoring the fact that Bill Murray’s big break was connected to the fact his brother Brian Doyle Murray got him into “Second City.” Seriously, 100% nobody in “the business” has a clear path to their rise and recognition, so this whole list is quite forced. I mean, David Letterman was a weatherman and now look at him: Failed weatherman! And Steve Martin apparently plays the banjo and was a magician as a part of his early “all-around-entertainer” life and now people wonder why he’s so into the banjo now? He has always been like that! It’s a really painful worldview to believe anyone in one specific field achieved success by being strictly focused on that one field. And sadly the comedy world seems to think having other creative “ventures” is a liability. Yeeesh. Just be creative and have fun! It’s not like you can simply spend 4 years at UCB/Pit/Magnet and then *BOOM* fame and fortune! Blah. Think outside the box. Like Señor Wences.
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On Louis CK Absolutely Kills It on The Tonight Show
I thought it was pretty well known that Leno makes 100% no effort to pre-question guests himself for interviews. He just runs through generic questions his staff puts together. Nothing like the good old days of late night TV where Letterman, Carson and Snyder had real conversations.
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On Joan Didion's 1979 Woody Allen Takedown
Rebecca, you realize your favorite quote from Woody Allen is attributed in that same scene to Groucho Marx? The actual Marx quote being: “Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” More info over here: http://www.16-9.dk/2007-02/side11_inenglish.htm Also, from my perspective the person who really pushed ironic references to a new level in modern comedy was David Letterman when he was on NBC. That is when the show was really subversive and he had little help from the network so he had to create comedy from whatever scraps he could. Still, “Touch my heart, with your foot.” is one of the funniest and most under-remembered moments in that film.
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The Lost Projects of Dan Harmon
On The Sad Details of The Onion's Exodus to Chicago
“We've been here for 12 years. A change will be healthy.” That quote dates from 2000 from an interview then editor Robert Siegel about the move from Madison, WI to New York. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017962258.php 1988 to 2000: The rise of “The Onion” to international prominence. 2000 to 2012: The rise of ”The Onion’s A.V. Club” as an independent—and respected—publication.